Facing page: Two of Dave Rohrbach's Percherons take a small group for a hayride on his Bee Tree farm. Rohrbach won several awards, including a first place, in an international livestock competition held during the weekend in Harrisburg at the State Farm Show Arena.

Dave Rohrbach laughs when colleagues call him the Evel Knievel of the draft horse world.

"They hired me to do the V-10 for three days," Rohrbach said of the Keystone show.

But, like Knievel, he's already thinking of enhancing the act. Rohrbach might exhibit a similar configuration using 15 Percherons at the 2013 Pennsylvania Farm Show in January.

"The multiple hitches is what I'm really interested in," he said.

No easy task

Such maneuvers are tricky.

"It's a lot of training," he said. "You have to guide them with your hand. The lines are my steering wheel to each horse," said Rohrbach, a former small-horse trainer. One Percheron can pull up to three times its weight, he said.

If just one decides to go its own way, it could tangle the others.

"If they knew their own strength and body weight we'd be in trouble," he said.

The Percherons are highly intelligent - each knows his name - and their training begins with vocal commands.

Lori Cooper of Whiteford, Md., who helped run the KILE event, rode shotgun with Rohrbach and his team. At one point, Cooper, a 20-year experienced driver and former driver for the Budweiser Clydesdales, took the reins.

"I've never done 10 in that configuration," she said of driving horses. "I've never seen it done anywhere like that. It's pretty unique."

"It's unbelievable to have that many horses in a hitch perform as well as they do," said Eric Thomas, president of the Pennsylvania Draft Horse & Mule Association, who saw the V-10 hitch at KILE. "It's extremely unique."

Love at first sight

Rohrbach met his first Percheron on Valentine's Day. He and a girlfriend were taking a ride in a Percheron-drawn carriage. That event hooked him on the massive horses.

"They're very spirited animals," he said. "Each horse is different in his own way."

They're like people, he added, "They have attitudes."

He's been showing Percherons for nearly a decade and running his own carriage business for about 12 years in such areas as Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore.

He owns some of the horses and his business contracts the rest from owner-operators.

"I have seven horses, which are like my children," he said of Dallas, Ben, General, Zeke, Dave, Mack and Max.

While not at horse shows, Bee Tree provides Percheron-drawn carriage rides for events such as weddings, proms, anniversaries and parties. The company utilizes 20 horses, which are gray, white or a mix of the two hues.

Turning heads

The business costs roughly $40,000 a year to run and has been impacted by growing gas and grain prices, he said. In addition to the feed, there are shoes and veterinary care for the horses, and insurance, the carriages, harnesses and other gear, trucks and trailer costs.

Bee Tree does about 15 events or contracts a month. But, before the economy soured, Rohrbach was doing 25 a month.

"It can catch up with you after awhile," he said. "We're just hoping we can stay alive."

Fortunately, the horses attract a lot of attention, which often leads to more business.

"We turn heads wherever we go," he said.

The Bee Tree Percherons were featured on television shows including TLC Network's "My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and the movie "The Other Guys" with Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell and Michael Keaton.

"There's just something about the white horses," Rohrbach said. "It's a fairy-tale image."

Rohrbach's wife, Susie, who helps him work with the Percherons, agrees.

"I love them. They're gentle giants," she said. "They're basically like kids. Like brothers and sisters, they'll pick at each other. But when they're asked to work, they'll work."